Many believe the Arizona Cardinals will attempt to trade running back David Johnson this offseason. However, his contract will make that difficult. He is due to make $10.2 million in 2020 and his salary is fully guaranteed.
His production has slipped the last two seasons and he has dealt with injuries.
The belief is the Cardinals might have to pay part of Johnson’s salary for a deal to be done.
The problem is they can’t. Well, sort of.
The NFL does not allow teams to trade cash or salary cap space. So in a trade, the Cardinals cannot simply agree to pay any part of Johnson’s salary.
However, there is a workaround. It requires a contract restructure.
The Cardinals and Johnson would have to agree to having some of his 2020 salary turned into a bonus. If they paid Johnson $4 million of the $10.2 million salary, the team acquiring him would only be on the hook for $6.2 million. That might be enough for a team to make a deal.
However, in that scenario, the Cardinals would then gain $4 million in cap relief, taking on $10 million in dead money for 2020.
So, no the Cardinals can’t technically take on some of Johnson’s salary, but they can still relieve a potential new team of some of the financial responsibility of Johnson’s deal.
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Ep. 257
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Ep. 256
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